Of course, it was John Elway who made the first bold move of the NFL offseason. And of course, it was a move for a quarterback, this time, arranging to trade with the Ravens for 34-year-old quarterback Joe Flacco, a move that will become official March 13.

This is what John Elway the general manager does in his seemingly endless search to find the Denver Broncos a starting quarterback: He just keeps swinging. But this move has the makings of yet another miss.

Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll hear Elway and the Broncos, including new head coach Vic Fangio, talk about how adding Flacco will provide stability to the offense, how Flacco will fit into the West Coast offensive system the Broncos will run under first-year coordinator Rich Scangarello, and how Flacco is an upgrade over Case Keenum — last year’s big free-agent prize. They’ll say that if Flacco can just play smart football and not commit turnovers, he’ll be good enough to lead the Broncos to...